"Ignorant, dirty, and poor": the perception of tuberculosis in Newfoundland, 1908-1912

Knowling, William Ronald (1996) "Ignorant, dirty, and poor": the perception of tuberculosis in Newfoundland, 1908-1912. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

In 1908 the Association for the Prevention of Consumption was founded at a public meeting in St. John's, Newfoundland. This was the beginning of a systematic campaign by the volunteers of the APC often with the tacit support of members of the government, to create a government-funded anti-tuberculosis campaign in Newfoundland. Four years later this goal was achieved and the APC was disbanded. The APCs success was achieved because of a perceived crisis which expressed itself in high rates of tuberculosis and public apathy. Apathy linked the problems of tuberculosis to a larger perceived political crisis which could only be eliminated by finding ways to broaden the participation of the population in public debate. -- However, this interpretation of the problem of tuberculosis was much more easily accepted in St. John's than in the outports where a more lively debate over the nature of the political crisis looked to the economic rulers of the island in St. John's for a solution. The inability of St. John's politicians and the APC to deal with the economic questions raised by the anti-tuberculosis campaign helped to strengthen movements such as the FPU. Thus, as the APC spread its message of tuberculosis prevention it also was helping to inform Newfoundlanders of the contradictions in their society which held up St. John's merchants as the apex of respectability without making them responsible for the social consequences of their decisions.

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